B-Complex Vitamins – Vitamin B1 (Thiamine) Health Benefits
During the Second World War the officers and guards in Japanese prisoner of war (POW) camps became ill, but the prisoners did not.
It was later found that the reason for this was because the prisoners were given cheaper brown rice to eat, whereas the officers and guards were given more expensive white rice to eat.
Once the Japanese realized what was going on they switched the rice around, and soon after the POWs became ill as a result of a vitamin B1 deficiency, a vitamin that is removed when wholegrain rice is polished to make white rice.
Why Is Vitamin B1 Important?
Vitamin B1 is also known as thiamine or thiamin and is a member of the vitamin B complex which is comprised of 8 B vitamins:
• Vitamin B1 (thiamine)
• Vitamin B2 (riboflavin)
• Vitamin B3 (niacin)
• Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid)
• Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine)
• Vitamin B7 (biotin)
• Vitamin B9 (folic acid)
• Vitamin B12 (cobalamins)
As shown by the two videos below, the vitamin B complex plays many essential roles within the body. However, in this article, we shall solely be concentrating on vitamin B1.
Vitamin B1 is a water soluble vitamin that is needed to convert carbohydrates and protein into energy. The body then uses this energy as a source of fuel to keep you alive and your organs functioning properly.
The fact that thiamine is water soluble means that your body can’t store it, such as in your fat deposits, so unless you are getting a regular daily supply, then you will eventually become deficient and start suffering from thiamine deficiency health problems just like the POWs did in Japan when they were given white rice to eat. As with most water soluble vitamins, it is very hard to overdose on thiamine as the body will excrete what it doesn’t need via your urine.
Obviously, because of its role in energy production, the presence of vitamin B1 in the diet is extremely important. Unsurprisingly therefore, one of the first signs of even a slight thiamine deficiency is fatigue, where a person feels as though they lack the energy or motivation to carry out their normal everyday activities.
As the deficiency gets worse, a person may experience nausea, loss of appetite, digestive upsets, memory loss, poor concentration and depression. Continued and prolonged deficiency can then lead to constipation, an irregular heart beat, pins and needles, aching muscles, burning sensations in the feet and an overall reduced level of mobility.
In severe cases, a vitamin B1 deficiency can ultimately lead to the disease beriberi which can be fatal. Although it should be noted that this is a relatively rare disease in westernized countries, and is more likely to occur in countries where a lot of polished/processed white rice is eaten as a staple food.
What Are The Health Benefits Of Thiamine?
Vitamin B1 has many health benefits in the body, although the majority of its benefits come as an indirect result of the effect it has on neurons and the neurotransmitter acetylcholine.
These effects shall be detailed below, but if you are looking for a simple list of vitamin B1/thiamine health benefits, then you can skip this section and go directly to the list of beneficial effects or the videos below them.
1 – Neurons
Neurons, or nerve cells, are cells in the body that transmit electro-chemical impulses. They allow you to think and react quickly to things in your external environment. Surrounding each neuron is an intermittent layer of myelin, which is known as the myelin sheath.
Essentially, this is a fatty coating that sits on the outside of a neuron and allows an electrical impulse to travel faster along the nerve cell by “jumping” between the myelin sheath at points known as the nodes of ranvier, a process referred to as saltatory conduction.
So why is thiamine important for nervous system health? Well, thiamine is needed for the development of myelin and without enough of it the myelin sheath surrounding your nerve cells will start to weaken and degrade.
The effects of severe myelin sheath degradation can be seen in sufferers of multiple sclerosis. It can affect your ability to make co-ordinated muscle movements, think clearly and can even affect your personality when your myelin becomes severely degraded. The more degraded the myelin sheath becomes, the more nerve related symptoms you are likely to experience as a result.
2 – Acetylcholine
Another very important benefit of vitamin B1 in the body is the role it plays within the brain, as thiamine assists in the synthesis of acetylcholine, which is one of the major excitatory neurotransmitters in the brain.
Acetylcholines main function in the body is to serve as a chemical messenger, allowing different parts of the body to communicate with each other via nerve cells such as when your brain decides that you want to stand up or move your arm for example.
Acetylcholine is also very important for being able to think clearly, and as a result, some people take choline supplements in order to stimulate the production of acetylcholine with the purpose of it acting as a “smart drug” to boost performance on exams.
So basically, if you have low levels of thiamine in the body, or are deficient in it, then the communication system within the body starts to become less efficient and may even eventually break down altogether.
This helps to explain the neurological symptoms of thiamine deficiency such as depression and a lack of concentration, and also problems relating to the heart and digestive system as the body cannot function optimally when acetylcholine isn’t produced in the amounts that are needed.
Conversely, if your body is getting all the thiamine it needs, and is therefore able to produce the amount of acetylcholine that it needs, this also helps to explain the benefits that vitamin B1 has on the body.
With enough acetylcholine, your brain can communicate with the different parts of your body so that your muscles and organs are able to work optimally. And since acetylcholine is also important for communication within the brain, your ability to think and concentrate will also benefit as a result of having enough thiamine.
Summary Of Vitamin B1 Benefits
Below is a brief summary of the main health benefits of vitamin B1 that come as a result of the effects thiamine has on the nervous system and the body in general.
• Assists in energy production.
• Helps the heart to function normally.
• Improves memory, mood, concentration and mental alertness.
• Important for nerve transmission of electrical impulses.
• Ensures proper digestion of food and increases appetite.
• Acts as an antioxidant which helps to protect the body against free radical damage.
• Can help to protect against neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease.
• Assists in red blood cell production.
B1 Videos
The following videos talk more about the benefits of thiamine.
How Much Thiamine (B1) Do You Need?
The recommended daily allowance (RDA) for thiamine is 1.5mg for men and 1.1mg for women, although the optimal amount is 25-300mg per day. In most people, the optimal amount can only be achieved by taking vitamin B1 supplements.
What Can Cause A Vitamin B1 Deficiency?
In western countries the most common cause of vitamin B1 deficiency is excessive alcohol consumption and smoking.
Carbonated drinks, long term use of antacids, over cooking food and drinking large amounts of coffee or tea can also deplete your body of vitamin B1.
In less developed regions of the world, deficiency primarily occurs as a result of eating a poor and unbalanced diet such as predominantly eating white rice.
Signs Of Deficiency
Some of the symptoms of a vitamin B1 deficiency include:
• Irregular heart beat
• Mood disorders
• Lack of concentration
• Impaired digestion
• Constipation
• Memory loss
• Aching muscles
• Loss of appetite
• Fluid retention
• Muscular cramps
• Fatigue
• Muscle wasting
• Pins and needles
• Personality changes
Where Do You Get It?
Fish, especially cod, and most meats are a good source of vitamin B1. As are peas, beans, nuts and seeds. If vitamin B rich foods are eaten with foods containing vitamin C then absorption can be increased.
Who Needs Vitamin Supplements?
If you are on a high carbohydrate diet, exercise regularly or have a physically active job then you may benefit from increasing the amount of thiamine that you consume to a level which you can only achieve by taking vitamin supplements (25-300mg/day).
High doses of thiamine (300mg) may help to reverse kidney damage and reduce stuttering.
Women with pre-menstrual syndrome (PMS) or people suffering from neurodegenerative diseases may also benefit from high doses of vitamin B1.
As a maintenance dose you can take 2mg daily. If taking high doses, it may be beneficial to spread out your doses throughout the day since thiamine is a water soluble vitamin and so any excess that the body does not need at the time will be excreted in urine.
Best Food Sources
Some of the best food sources of vitamin B1 are:
• Roast Pork
• Cod
• Peas
• Peanuts
• Wheatgerm
• Brazil Nuts
• Wholemeal Bread
• Porridge
• Oatmeal
• Liver
• Brewers yeast
• Sunflower seeds
• Kidney beans
